Are Chromebooks worth it?

I'm going to uni this year (September) and would like something to be able to carry around with me. I have a laptop, but with it been a gaming laptop from 2010, its quiet heavy, and find it unnecessary to carry around with me on a day to day basis.

With the chromebook only been £199 from google themselves, I'm wondering if there is really any alternatives? I love the idea that everything is backed up on your google account so when I get home, I don't need to mess around transferring work to my desktop or laptop to continue. I could use dropbox or some other syncing service but I am struggling to find a laptop that's as compact as the Chromebook, and as cheap as it also. Not to mention chromebooks come with 100gb online storage for 2 years, which is around £7 a month from dropbox ontop of the laptop cost.

honestly I dont think they are worth the money, I mean its £200 for a limited capability laptop, at some point when you want to use it for something else, you will be kicking yourself that you just didnt wait/fork out the extra cash for a fully functional laptop

Ok you have some speculators in your thread but I don't think any of them have tried one I own a Samsung chromebook and use it for college and it's perfect. It's light, has a long battery and it's online web browsing performance is great (including streaming video). The machine is basically a powerful web browser, all the work you do online so everything is saved instantly. It's keyboard and display and large enough to not feel cramped.

If you want to play graphically intensive games/watch blu-ray videos/install bloated applications, then look elsewhere - that's not what chromebooks are for =)

Ok you have some speculators in your thread but I don't think any of them have tried one I own a Samsung chromebook and use it for college and it's perfect. It's light, has a long battery and it's online web browsing performance is great (including streaming video). The machine is basically a powerful web browser, all the work you do online so everything is saved instantly. It's keyboard and display and large enough to not feel cramped.

If you want to play graphically intensive games/watch blu-ray videos/install bloated applications, then look elsewhere - that's not what chromebooks are for =)

Nah I only wanted it for my work, the instant backup is what drew me towards the Chromebook. I have a gaming laptop and a gaming desktop, and a nexus 7, if I really want portable gaming. The only thing that bugs me a little is people tell me its practically useless if you aren't connected to wifi, and while the uni I will be attending does have wifi in most areas, some don't. Even our cafes etc are still to pick up free wifi. Just wondering if it doesn't become totally useless while not connected or can you still work on it, and it'll just do a backup when it can connect?

When I was in the market for a laptop, I looked at this, not only for price but weight, mobility, etc. It was cheap, light (the Samsung), and perfect for when ever I wanted to start writing something.

Problem is, is that I know the inevitable will happen and I'll want to download music, some sort of application on it (iTunes, Maybe Mumble to talk to my friends) and you can't. You can not download non-google products. Messing with it in the store, there is no programs option, and talking to the guy, you ONLY get to use google things.

"So no Skype, it wants you to use Google talk." - Exact words from the guy trying to sell me one. And honestly that kind of sold me to not get it, only because I know at some point, I'll want other products that exist outside of the google product area.

If you only use google things now, and don't have the need to download anything non-google onto that computer and use it SOLELY for essays, research, e-mail, etc, then it's prolly perfect, but if you have any want to have anything extra, you might just want to fork out the extra money (50+$) and buy a regular laptop.

It was nice to type on, sleek, and thin. Looked amazing, but in the end, I know that I'm not going to be okay after long with ONLY google products, and when I go "Oh man I want to download this!" I'm only going to be disappointed.